Letters: No solutions, no Mideast peace

Re "The one-state illusion," Opinion, Oct. 6

Jeremy Ben-Ami is correct that a one-state democracy will not provide either Palestinians or Jews with a state to express their national identities, and the only reason that a one-state solution is discussed is because of frustration that no peace agreement has been reached. But Ben-Ami does not identify why 20 years of talks have not been successful: Israel does not want a Palestinian state.

Ben-Ami suggests that all can be resolved if President Obama would only set a solution on the table. He's wrong. What the U.S. must do is stop gifting Israel with about $3 billion each year until it accepts a Palestinian state.

Jeff Warner

Los Angeles

One state and two states are both illusions and not solutions for Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank. A confederation with Jordan of a large portion of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is the most workable solution.

There is already a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. Upon Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, both countries could provide security in the Jordan Valley.

Most Jordanians are Palestinians. Jordan is already responsible for the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

What is left is for West Bank Palestinians and those in the Gaza Strip to say yes to peace — but their quarreling leaders must also go along.

David Guttman

Sherman Oaks

Given who the Israeli politician is who made this statement advocating the forced expulsion of Palestinians from occupied Palestine, the fact that his statement is not better known is regrettable:

"Israel should have taken advantage of the suppression of the demonstrations in China [Tiananmen Square], when the world's attention was focused on what was happening in that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."

The Israeli politician who in November 1989 advocated the forced expulsion of Palestinians was current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When he gave his speech before students at Bar-Illan University, he was a deputy foreign minister.

Thus, when Netanyahu claimed to support the two-state solution, some of us had a legitimate reason to be skeptical.